But a change was at hand, and a still mightier change was in prospect.

At the time of Cowper's birth, John Wesley was twenty-eight and Whitefield was seventeen.

With them the revival of religion was at hand.

Johnson, the moral reformer, was twenty-two.

Howard was born, and in less than a generation Wilberforce was to come.
When Cowper was six years old his mother died; and seldom has a child, even such a child, lost more, even in a mother.